CIMS GTS to host technology seminar

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- A "hidden gem in the IT world" will go on display this week.

CIMS Global Technology Solutions, a Huntsville-based company, is hosting a free seminar on some of the latest technologies in this area.

"It should be a great venue," said Ron Wicks of CIMS GTS. "We'll keep it short, brisk and educational."

The company, which has just 12 employees, has been in Huntsville for about 15 years and provides services with health care, academic, state and federal agencies in document management, workflow and automated forms processing technologies, software and database development, systems integration, business process consulting and analysis.

"We specialize in helping companies break free from paper," said company President Ron Casto. "We bring expertise in a broad range of technologies to helping them."Some companies are limited by the size of their facility. If we give them back some space (by reducing the amount of physically stored documents), that gives them room to grow."

Wicks said the company isn't well-known in the community, and that's one of the reasons for Wednesday's seminar.

"This is the first time we've done this," he said. "This is the first of many seminars we plan to hold.

"We are going to show a number of technologies at the seminar."

The keynote speaker is Richard Payne, who has 19 years of experience in electronic document management as well as converting legacy systems to electronic business systems. There will also be presentations by Kodak, OnBase, Cardiff Liquid Office, Prostor, Kodak Capture Pro and Versitec.

"We are a combination of IT experts and people who can listen to agencies' and business needs and help them," Wicks said of the company. "Our goal is to help the community think out of the box.

"We help them develop a technology plan that targets their goals, provides for future growth and stays within their budget."

Casto said his company also helps its customers improve their access to documents and information, as well as keeping them secure.

"If a doctor needs to get information on a patient after midnight, they can access that right away" on a PC or laptop instead of going to the office and going through a file, he said.

"We don't just provide 'stove-pipe' solutions," Casto said. "We provide a total view of their systems."

And, Wicks said, the company can help decision-making, which leads to being more competitive in their industry.

"People are either overloaded with information or underloaded, they don't have enough," he said. "If we can provide the tools to help, we'll make them ore competitive."

In the meantime, Wicks said the company hopes to add to Huntsville's image as a space-based, defense town.

"We see Huntsville as a leader in space, defense and now biotechnology," he said. "We want to be a catalyst in making Huntsville a leader in IT."